that we get our economy in full gear. wand that i yield to mr. levin. >> the gentlemanfrommichigan. >>i did not know i would follow the distinguished majority leader. i just want to say i mostly want to talk about plan c but for him or anybody else to come on the floor and say the president hasn't proposed spending cuts, it isn't true and it undercuts the necessary level of trust to find common ground. that kind of a statement should not be made. i said in the rules committee for three hours, participated for two last night. there was no reference to plan c. and it came up just a few minutes secretly before midnight. the purpose of plan c is to try to get votes for plan b twn republican conference. and what it does is to undermine the affordable care act by eliminating the protections and it would result in the loss of health insurance coverage for 420,000 people. it would repeal the block grant, is social services block grant, services for millions of americans and it wasn't machine years ago when chairman camp wrote ssg has been a key source of funding -- of flexible funding for criti

builtlakemichiganandbuilt it close to the city. all the warm water, had warm air, turned snow into rain. over chicago we're looking at blue skies. chicago is like an island of good weather in a sea of bad weather. to the north, wisconsin, dane county, madison, snow was dumped there, 20 to 12 inches there. tens of thousands people without power. also iowa looking at snow like they haven't seen since 2009. roads are closed. there are traffic fatalities there. central illinois covered with snow. 10 of thousand of people without power. northern indian, tens of thousands people without power. most of pouter outages due to wind gusts topping at 50 miles per hour. how that affects everybody else around the country, blue skies over oy hair airport. a few flight cancellations. in terms of weather chicago is looking setting a record, 301 days without enough snow to measure it, megyn. megyn: wow, that is something in chicago. mike, thank you. >>> we've been tracking this winter storm for three days now. so far six people have died in five states. as of this morning hundreds of thousands

for one of the busiest days of the year. elsewhere, parts of wisconsin, iowa,andmichigandugout from more than a foot of snow. the storm was blamed for at least nine deaths in half a dozen states. the day that some pegged as the "end of the world" came and went without incident. the focus on december 21, 2012, was said to be based on projections in an ancient mayan calendar. in mexico, tourists and new age spiritualists gathered to greet the day at mayan archaeological sites. and thousands converged on stonehenge in england for an "end of the world" party coinciding with the winter solstice. it may not be doomsday, but americans are feeling less hopeful about the future. the university of michigan's consumer confidence index fell this month to the lowest point since july. and wall street gave ground today on worries about the lack of a budget deal in washington. the dow jones industrial average lost almost 121 points to close near 13,190. the nasdaq fell 29 points to close at 3,021. for the week, the dow gained about half a percent; the nasdaq rose 1.7%. those are some of the day's m

this money, where is it going to end? host: our last call is going to befrommichigan. wehave shelley on the independent line. what do you think about the president's remarks or the fiscal cliff beck's caller: -- fiscal fliff? caller: there was not much else he could save. they are not going to make an agreement. this is why they are called the do nothing congress. they do not do anything. the republicans, to me -- i feel they let the people belong to the tea party make the stamps for them. even if some of them what to compromise, the tea party gets in there. for some reason, they listen to them. it is a shame, her because most americans, they need help. we need help. and we do not get anything. in michigan, where i live, the governor has knocked down the unions, you know? he has done the teachers terrible. now, we have to spend more money on our social security. all of us should protest. i do not care what city or state we belong in. we should protest against this do-nothing congress. host: you can always check out our special page on our website, set up for all things related to the

to think?lakemichiganandall the warm air that comes that comes off the lake. it melted the snow. the surrounding states got clobbered. wisconsin had 20 inches of snow. parts of dane county and medicine. iowa, looking at depths of snow that they haven't seen since 2009. central illinois covered with snow. here in the windy city, where we have the ability to make it difficult for you to get over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house -- if you get there late come he can't blame o'hare now because things are cooking along. ashley: mike tobin, thank you, sir. more now on the fiscal cliff. how automatic spending cuts on january 2, affect defense contractors for. joining us now is charles wald, a retired four-star general. general, thank you for joining us. if nothing is done, we got the fiscal cliff. $35 billion or 10% of the defense budget will be cut. can it handle that kind of back? >> were the things that has been missed is the uncertainty over the last year. in particular, the last six months. but the the budgetary cuts have already started to take place from the

. host: ? writes -- josh rogin writes -- brian is with usfrommichigan. republicanline. caller: good morning. one of the questions i have had since the beginning is where was the president and secretary of state? did they see this going down in real time? i have not heard that question asked. i hope you can answer both questions. why did these recent three or four leave the state department? what did they do wrong to leave? will they be subpoenaed, will they be asked to come and testify? guest: as for real-time surveillance, what we know now is that there was some surveillance of the attack. apparently there was an unarmed drone that was quickly deploy that captured some of the attack. we also learned that there was testimony that the deputy assistant secretary who was in charge of the embassy security was monitoring these events in real time along with a couple of other people. we are not sure whether the cia and defense department were monitoring, but it is possible they were. president obama had a full schedule. he was in the middle of the campaign that day. he was being briefed b